[EM] Re: alternate proportional method

[Olli Salmi]

At 00:09 +0100 22.7.2003, James Gilmour wrote:
>Stephane wrote (in part):
>>  STV only allows comparison between the candidates of a same
>>  party running in the same multi-member constituency. You
>>  cannot compare all candidates of the same party because, to
>>  my knowledge, all candidates of the same party do not run in
>>  the same constituency.
>
>This betrays a misunderstanding of how STV-PR works, and indeed, a
>misunderstanding of the whole purpose of STV-PR.  So far as the voting
>system is concerned, the parties are totally irrelevant.  It is the
>candidates as candidates that matter.  The purpose of an STV-PR election
>(no matter how large or small the electoral district = number of members
>elected together) is to elect the N candidates who are "most"
>representative of those who voted, as expressed through the preferences
>marked by those voters.
>
>PR of political parties is obtained only to the extent that the voters
>vote the parties' tickets.  When the voters do this, party PR results.
>But when the voters are motivated to seek PR of something other than the
>parties, party PR does not result.  Thus PR of political parties may be
>an outcome of STV-PR, but it is never the objective.

I'm not sure I understand the practical significance of this. How is 
politics different in, say, Ireland, Malta, Northern Ireland, which 
have used STV for a longish period, from the Scandinavian countries 
which have used list PR at least as long?

Olli Salmi